A Study On Language Aptitude From The Perspective Of Dynamic System Theory

Language aptitude is gradually becoming one of the hottest research focus in the field of Second Language Teaching and Second Language Acquisition both abroad and at home in recent years.Both domestic and foreign researches have expounded that language aptitude is of significant importance for the development of learners' second language acquisition which can't be ignored.Based on Dynamic System Theory,language aptitude is affected by a lot of factors.However,most studies on language aptitude have primarily focused on the relationship of language aptitude and some dynamic factors in individual differences,such as motivation,learning styles or some other components in individual differences,which ignore the dynamic feature of language aptitude,meanwhile,some relatively stable factors in individual differences are scarcely explored.Therefore,this study,taking Dynamic System Theory as its theoretical framework,intends to explore whether there are differences in language aptitude from different dimensions,specifically,gender and onset age,meanwhile,to explore whether the language aptitude,gender and onset age are predictors for language learning performance.This study has an investigation on 81 non-English majors who are sophomores from Northeast Forestry University and has investigated the learning abilities of vocabulary and grammar,which are the general concern of non-English majors in China and are of great significance for English learning.Meanwhile,this study aims at exploring whether there exist some differences in language aptitude from two aspects,namely,gender and onset age,which are relatively stable factors in individual differences.This study chooses two of the LLAMA language aptitude tests in order to test students' vocabulary learning ability and grammatical inferencing ability and an analysis of the collective data is made by SPSS 19.0.This research aims at exploring three questions:(1)What is the difference of language aptitude in terms of gender?(2)What is the difference of language aptitude in terms of onset age?(3)Are language aptitude,gender and onset age predictors for language learning performance?Research findings are revealed as follows.(1)No noticeable gender differences are figured out in vocabulary learning ability,grammatical inferencing ability and language aptitude though male students are better than female students at vocabulary learning ability,grammatical inferencing ability and language aptitude.However,the significant number of language aptitude is closer to the standard one than the two single abilities.(2)Though early learners behave better than late learners at vocabulary learning ability,grammatical inferencing ability and language aptitude,there is still no significant onset age difference figured out in vocabulary learning ability,grammatical inferencing ability and language aptitude.However,the significant number of language aptitude is closer to the standard one than the two single abilities.(3)No significant difference between different levels of language aptitude and language learning performance is figured out.However,there exist gender and onset differences in language learning performance,which are relatively remarkable.Language aptitude,gender and onset age are predictors for language learning performance,which can jointly explain the language learning performance,but it is not significant.The research results of this study have enriched the empirical researches of language aptitude and provided a considerable theory to have a research on language aptitude.Though language aptitude is without significant predictive power for students' achievement,it has a positive correlation of students' achievement,which is in accordance with the complex and dynamic features of Dynamic System Theory and is of great significance in increasing non-English majors' awareness about the importance of language aptitude.Meanwhile,the tests in LLAMA make them find their own advantaged abilities in language learning so as to make use of their advantages in order to get better performance,which plays a significant role in improving the enthusiasm for language learning,enhancing the efficiency of learning and strengthening learning confidence as well as cultivating the ability of independent study.